Video: UN East Jerusalem humanitarian report http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/unifeed/d/17598.html

The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched its first comprehensive report today on the "positions of Palestinians in East Jerusalem" saying that "Israeli measures and policies are prioritizing the settler population of East Jerusalem at the expense of the Palestinian population."

Video: As Nakba Day approaches, Israeli troops conquer a simulated Arab village / Max Blumenthal http://mondoweiss.net/2011/05/as-nakba-day-approaches-israeli-troops-conquer-a-simulated-arab-village.html

This week, as Palestinians plan to observe the formal anniversary of their dispossession on May 15, or 'Nabka Day', the Jerusalem Post’s Benjamin Speier reported that Israeli soldiers from the 202 paratrooper battalion "put their skills into action by conquering a simulation Arab village." "Each platoon needs to likhbush [conquer] an area in the village, and we get to likhbush an area called Yassin, south Yassin," said company commander Matan Pelen. After the exercise was completed, Pelen commented, "This area is now ours, it’s under our control." Whether or not the Israeli army is training to literally seize a village and expel its residents, the reliance by modern day Israelis on a colonial vocabulary exposes the state’s essential mission.

Galilee Arabs to hold 'Nakba march'

 Over a thousand Arab Israelis are expected to hold a protest march in the Galilee on Tuesday to mourn 63 years since the Palestinian exodus that accompanied the founding of the state, the Arab Higher Monitoring Committee said on Sunday. Tuesday is Israel’s Independence Day. Muhammad Zidane, the head of the committee, told The Jerusalem Post the march would pass from the former site of the village of al-Ruways to the one-time site of the village Amoun before holding a vigil at the entrance to the present day village of Kabul, 14 kilometers southeast of Acre.

According to Zidane, both villages were destroyed during the War of Independence after their residents fled. "The message of this day is that we don’t forget what happened and we are asking that those who left their villages must be allowed to return," Zidane said. He said there are around 300,000 Arabs in Israel who were displaced during the war and lost any land rights to their former homes.

Video: Is BDS strong at American universities? / Joseph Dana http://972mag.com/is-bds-strong-at-american-universities/

Yesterday I blogged a quote about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) movement uttered by Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak in a long interview with Haaretz. In a rare move, Barak acknowledged the power of the BDS movement.The following piece, published in The Forward about the power of BDS on American university campuses, is a nice continuation to the ‘how strong is BDS’ debate. Note that the piece solely concerns the United States.